[vintagebaseballcardguy]

I am a small fish in the collecting world. It used to be that I was a small fish out of necessity. While that is somewhat still the case, it is now also a result of some of what you are saying, Peter. I observe a lot here on Net54, at the National, etc. It is funny and ironic how certain things come back around full circle and end up devouring themselves. I remember being a teenager and looking at dealers' ads in magazines like SCD and Tuff Stuff. You never really knew what ex or nm meant because it was different for every dealer. Now we have dealers trading in altered cards and such, but it is all okay because, as you say, those dealers provide impeccable service as they connect customers with the cards that have become slabbed commodities. The dealers can simply plead ignorance and defer to the TPGs. Nevermind that professional grading was supposed to regulate the hobby. I used to bristle when you wrote "stuff trumps all." However, I now know it to be true.

Thank goodness there are good people still left in this hobby. I have become content to work on little off the radar, low budget projects that few here would even care about, in hopes that some of the graft you describe will be cleaned up. I am not holding my breath.

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